How to identify seedlings

May 23, 2013

Do you know your lettuce from your parsnip seedlings?

Spot the coriander(it’s the serrated leaf on the uppermost seedling at the top of the picture, the bottom seedling is a nettle)

Most gardeners like to feel they can identify their favourite plants but when they’re at their itsy bitsy tiny seedling stage, with only their first two seed leaves (known as the cotyledons) it’s a challenge.

Lots of seedlings look the same when they only have two leaves and in many cases it’s not until they’ve developed their next set of leaves, or their ‘true’ leaves, that it becomes clear what plants they will grow up to become.

Would you be able to spot the difference without the labels?

Often plants from the same vegetable families will look remarkably similar as seedlings, which is no surprise as their seeds and flowers are very similar too.

I’m no angel here… it’s something I constantly have to remind myself to do, though weeding out an entire sowing of Florence fennel a couple of years ago might finally have cured me of my haphazard habits.

So if I can share any lesson today about how to name seedlings its label, label, label and that means every single pot and every single module if your tray of seedlings has more than one type of seed.

Use lollypop sticks, make plastic labels by cutting up milk cartons or even shave the bark off a twig and write on it if you want to avoid the plastic markers that are available in garden centres, but whatever you do label USING A PERMANENT MARKER. Pencil, felt pen or biro all WASH OFF.

If you don’t you may find you’ll be eating lettuce with your roast potatoes…

Lettuce seedling (thanks for the inspiration for this post @GardenerGareth & @DavidCorscadden)

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Who is Behind Greenside Up

Hi, my name is Dee Sewell, social and therapeutic horticulturalist, owner/manager of Greenside Up, community and vegetable garden tutor and author of this blog.
I began blogging back in 2009 when I started my Carlow/Kilkenny garden business and as a result the blog is now full of tips, tales, talk and tasty treats about Ireland, gardening, recipes, the environment, family life and community.
If you want to find more about how we came to live in Ireland and what we do, take a look in the About page or Contact me about how I can help you grow your own food.

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Dee has given me lots of knowledge and skills to get out and get my garden sorted. Maybe I can be nearly as good as my Dad was. He grew everything have lots of memories of harvesting fruit and veg as a child. Now it’s time for me to create similar memories for my own kids. Thanks for the know how and somewhat shaky confidence. Really looking forward to lots more gardening and harvesting. Thanks again – Verena Butler, Hugginstown

All I can say is that I fell on this course totally by accident and I am so happy as I thoroughly enjoyed it, loved all that we did and I have come away with a better knowledge of how to select, plant and hopefully produce good vegetable crops – Carmel Fennelly, Ballyhale

I was extremely happy with the community garden project delivered by Greenside Up at Carrick-on-Suir Library. Dee Sewell delivered everything she promised in a friendly and professional manner and with a very short lead time. Dee worked well with the TY boys from CBS Carrick-on-Suir and brought them, step by step, through the entire process of measuring, digging, planting, mulching and constructing raised beds. We all benefitted enormously from the gardening project learning about the advantages…

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I did an entry level gardening course with Dee a couple of years ago and couldn’t recommend her course enough. She knows anything there is to know about vegetable growing, is very free with her knowledge. Dee genuinely loves what she does and her enthusiasm is infectious. Her class was fabulous, engaging, fun and brimming with useful tips and hints. It truly takes the mystery out of growing your own.

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Bryan Leech, Owner, Kilgraney House, Co Carlow

I found the whole course very interesting and would recommend it to everyone to start growing organic veg and to say it was most enjoyable taking part

Tullow Family Resouce Centre Gardener

Besides her obvious talent for gardening and building a business from scratch, Dee has the ability to put her customers at the heart of everything, even when they call at the weekend to sort out a crisis.